312 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



a veritable gallery through the organs from 0.40 to 0.60 

 meter long. 



The tract is either rectilinear or tortuous. It is tortuous 

 when the ball has spent its force and is unable to penetrate 

 directly through the bones. When the projectile makes its 

 exit without penetrating into the muscles, it is similar to 

 that of a seton. When the passage is blind the ball is left 

 in the tissues, and yet a wound of exit is no assurance that 

 a fragment of the ball, split by striking a bone, is not left 

 behind, as is frequently the case with the dum-dum bullet. 



The tract in the muscles is surrounded "by a hemor- 

 rhagic muff," and is carpeted with a friable detritus. When 

 the ball has penetrated in the usual manner the muscular 

 fibres are only separated. The bones are either penetrated 

 or scattered and the organs seem reduced to a pulp. It is 

 not rare for the ball to stop beneath the skin after passing 

 through the body where it is found beneath a large ec- 

 chymosis. The dum-dum bullet used by the English troops 

 in India produces lesions of exceptional gravity. It splits 

 upon striking and ploughs up the tissues in its course, 

 tearing the parenchymatous organs, pulverizing the bones 

 and reducing everything it meets to a veritable pap com- 

 posed of bony splinters, blood and muscle fibres. It causes 

 the formation of extensive traumatic foci, irregular and 

 without any definite character, in which it is difficult to rec- 

 ognize the physiognomy of the mutilated organs. 



Projectiles, or shells, take off limbs by cutting or shat- 

 tering them, producing a huge, gaping wound containing 

 mangled bones, muscles, etc., which mingle confusedly, and 

 cause the limb to dangle by shreds of skin and muscular 

 debris. 



TREATMENT. — Formerly, great stress was placed upon 

 immediate intervention; the extirpation of the bullet was 

 advised in nearly every case. Surgeons of the old school 



